Sodam Yat
History Origin Sodam Yat was born a Daxamite and is currently a Green Lantern Intergalactic Peacekeeper operating as Ion, having become one of the most powerful characters in current continuity. Prophecy Sodam Yat is a prophesied future member of the Green Lantern Corps. He is mentioned in passing to Abin Sur by a demon named Qull of the Five Inversions, who had been imprisoned on the planet Ysmault by the Guardians of the Universe. As a Daxamite (a race with inherent Superman-like powers) with a Power Ring, he would be nearly unstoppable. Despite this, in Qull's prophecy, he is still defeated as part of the final destruction of the Green Lantern Corps. Sinestro Corps War and Upgrade As a child, Sodam Yat was fascinated by the stars, despite Daxam's xenophobic culture. His father tried to discourage this, but during a meteor shower, Sodam saw a ship crash by a mountain not far from his home. Heading to the crash site, he finds a wrecked spaceship, with the pilot still alive. Sodam is able to communicate with the alien, named Tessog, despite not speaking the same language. When his parents discovered this, they have Tessog killed and Sodam Yat brainwashed into believing that Tessog's people where invaders. During a class field trip to a museum, Sodam sees Tessog's stuffed corpse in holding a rock in a museum diorama, attacking a Daxamite. This causes his true memories to resurface, and Sodam spends several years building a spaceship from Tessog's damaged craft. The night he is supposed to leave, a Green Lantern Ring attaches itself to him, and Sodam joins the Green Lantern Corps. thumb|left|Christened The New Ion.|200px Sodam Yat made his first appearance when Kilowog gathers a group of Lanterns to strike back against Sinestro's forces attacking in Space Sector 2263. Salakk singles out Arisia to keep an eye on the newly graduated Lantern Yat, while she wonders why Sodam is so important. Salakk has been charged by the Guardians of the Universe to keep Qull's prophesy from coming to pass, but keeps this to himself, only saying that one day she may know why he is so special. During the Sinestro Corps assault on Mogo, Sodam takes command of the team sent to stop Ranx from destroying Mogo. Sodam later destroys the core of Ranx the Sentient City, ending the battle of Mogo. When the Sinestro Corps attack Earth, Sodam is chosen as the new host for the Ion Entity by the Guardians of the Universe, and fights Superman-Prime. The two battle each other fiercely, sending them through different areas of New York. Ion begins to unleash Superman-like powers, such as heat vision to hurt his opponent. While the two trade blows, Ion is thrown into a nuclear power plant, with its walls lined with lead. This causes Ion to begin to weaken and his ring must create a shield and process the lead poisoning to cure him. Prime takes the opportunity to spear him with several uranium rods, severely weakening him. Ion tries to escape, only to have Prime knock him into a cemetery. They continue to do battle, each drawing blood from their opponent. Although Ion battles courageously, the lead poisoning and loss of blood begins to affect him and he is beaten unconscious. As Prime picks up Ion, he looks back and says "Who's next?" just as John Stewart and Guy Gardner fly at him. Yat is later shown to have been rescued from the clutches of Prime and is being cared for my Soranik Natu. After The War After the events of the war, The Guardians request Kyle Rayner assist Sodam in adjusting to his new role. While speaking about Sodam's history and attitude as a Lantern, it is revealed that Sodam must now permanently wear a Power Ring (despite his possession of the Ion powers) to prevent the lead in his body from killing him. They are then attacked by Alexander Nero, who had been freed during the initial assault on Oa but had not participated in the overall Sinestro Corps story. Kyle fights to less than his abilities to encourage Sodam to embrace his status as Ion. Sodam eventually defeats Nero by taking control of Nero's own constructs--something Kyle states that he had never attempted. Later, Yat was seen hovering beside the sun, recharging his body. He was then called back to Oa to recieve a mission briefing. When he arrived, he learned that Sinestro Corps rings were still finding new bearers. Yat along with a squad of Lanterns led by Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardner went to the Vega System to hunt down remaining Sinestro Corps rings. Yat was split up with Arisia. Together they tracked down a ring, only to be captured and put under the influence of the Black Mercy by Mongul. While under the influence of the Mercy, Yat was shown his greatest fears which included the Blackest Night and his prophesized death. Sodam Yat was found and released by the other lanterns. He helped the others defeat Mongul, though Bzzd sacrificed himself to give them an opening. Sodam Yat goes on a diplomatic mission with Arisia and Guy Gardner escorting the Guardians to Zamaron. While there, the Guardians explain to Yat that if the Star Sapphire ordeal gets out of hand, he is to destroy their central power battery and as much of their Corps as possible. However, the situation did not go that far. thumb|right|Yat on Zamaron Mission|200px Yat was in a sector house with Arisia, having recently arrested and imprisoned a Sinestro Corps member. Suddenly, the ship Sodam had built to leave Daxam crashed into the sector house. His mother was revealed to have piloted it. She told Yat that Daxam had been conquered by the Sinestro Corps and was their new base of operations. She pleaded with Yat for his help but Ion refused to go anywhere near Daxam, saying that it finally got what it deserved. Sodam and his mother continued to argue, even bring up Yat's childhood friend Tessog, until Yat finally gave in. He said he wasn't going to help for Daxam. He was doing it because he was a Green Lantern and that he would not allow "evil to escape his sight". He sent his mother to Oa and made way for Daxam along with Arisia. The two Green Lanterns made thier way to Yat's home planet to find an enormous Sinestro Corps member who resembled a snake wrapped around the entire planet. They managed to sneak by it and then made their way to Daxam, defeating a few Sinestro Corps troops and stopping a group of hopeless Daxamites from committing suicide. Sodam soon discovered that the Kryptonian-like powers he would usually gain under a yellow sun were depleted due to the red star that neighbored Daxam. Therfore he would have to rely on his ring and Ion powers, which he had yet to fully unleash, alone. He found his father who told them of their plight. Sodam cursed his father and the rest of the Daxamites for being utter cowards and not standing up against Mongul. thumb|left|Yat uses The Ion Power|175px Ion goes ahead and challenges Mongul alone. They have a vicious rematch and Yat does a better job fighting the conqueror than he did when they had last fought in the Vega System. Still, Mongul began to gain the upperhand and Yat tried to call upon the full Ion power but was restricted due to interference from his ring by Scar, the secretly renegade Guardian. His ring explained that the only way to fully tap into the Ion power would be to either get hit by enough energy and use that energy as a catalyst. This would allow him to tap into his Ion abilities but for an unknown amount of time. The other option was to remove his power ring, which would unfortunatley allow his lead poisoning to spread quickly and kill him. After using one of Mongul's attacks to use his powers, Yat realized that the Ion powers were quickly depleting. In an act of self sarcrifice, he removed his ring and flew up toward Daxam's red sun, tearing through the gigantic snake-like Sinestro Corps member as he went. Sodam collided into the sun and using the full strength of Ion, turned the star yellow. This would allow the Daxamites to use their extra abilities possibly at the cost of his own life. Brightest Day After the Blackest Night, a mysterious being that stole Parallax has come to take Ion. Without Ion, Daxam lost their abilities. Sodam crashed down to Daxam and is revealed to be alive. Powers and Abilities Powers Daxamite Physiology: Sodam Yat's cellular structure is more dense, resilient and biologically more effective than human tissue. :Solar Energy Absorption: This is the main source of his powers. Sodam Yat's celluar structure absorbs more solar energy more effectlly than a human being. ::Superhuman Stamina: Sodam Yat's body stores and processes solar energy at a rapid rate and for a variety of effects, which are explained in his other powers. His storage capacity is sufficient to let him function at full capacity for up to 14 days depending on his physical condition and state of rest. While under a star of the right class (G-type dwarfs in the Blue-White through Yellow Spectrum are ideal) he replenishes energy at a constant rate. ::Superhuman Strength: He is as strong as Superman. His physical strength is greatly magnified by the combination of his more-efficient muscular system and the enhancement of his skeletal system's structural integrity, but is primarily augmented by the sheer force of his solar forcefield. When Sodam Yat appears to be lifting a weight, he is actually holding and pushing it with the bioelectric field. His energy stores push not from himself, but from the shielding that surrounds him. ::Super Speed: Similarly, Sodam Yat's enhanced metabolic rate, muscular speed, and nervous system grant him incredible speed. His Daxamite structure and the solar energy paths that course along his neurophysical structure allow him to react at many times normal human speed. He can read a complete encyclopedia set in seconds, wash a sink full of dishes in the blink of an eye, or run from New York to Paris in a matter of seconds. He can move faster than the human eye can perceive if necessary, but this requires extra effort. His reflexes are quick enough to allow him to dodge incoming automatic laser fire. ::Sodam Yat's perceptions are similarly rapid, allowing him to see individual bullets fired from high-speed automatic weaponry in flight and outrace them easily. Moving at extreme speeds for extended periods of time rapidly drains his solar reserves. ::Freeze Breath: The ability to create hurricane force winds by blowing, and to chill his breath in order to freeze a target. ::Super Breath: can breathe in large amounts of air, an ability used when dealing with and disposing things like clouds of poison gas. ::Invulnerability: Naturally, the basic forcefield effect renders him invulnerable. Unlike a human, Sodam Yat's body has more than simple cohesion and adhesion holding his tissues together. The bioelectric forcefield has a set tolerance for how much stress occurs before it reacts energetically in opposition to the external force. The tolerance for how much stress occurs before Sodam Yat's tissues counteract it varies according to tissue type. His bones allow virtually no compressional or tensional strain (deformation in shape) and his fleshy tissues remain supple under soft pressure, but under stress react to restrict any further deformation in shape. Since the strength of Sodam Yat's cellular forcefields greatly exceeds the cohesive force of any substance, no object can puncture his skin. ::He can withstand a 1-megaton nuclear explosion unphased, and has been able to tolerate the molten conditions in the Earth's core without any discomfort. :::*'Healing Factor': In the extreme event that Yat is harmed, either by an alien matching his own strength or other occurence, he has the ability to heal almost instantaneously from any wound, assuming that the process is not impeded from some outside factor i.e. Lead. This "healing factor" is supplemented by his storage of solar energy and also seems to be an unconscious ability, as Yat does not seem to have the ability to control when he heals and when he doesn't. Much like a human has no control over their immune system. :::*'Super Immunity': Due to the highly charged nature of his solar storage systems, his immune system deals with most normal poisons and diseases quickly and with no ill effect. Radiation and similar harmful energies are similarly neutralized. ::Flight/'Levitation': Daxamite muscle tissue when super-charged with solar-energy, can generate a powerful gravitational field. These fields in combination with Sodam Yat's personal bioelectric field give him the ability to negate gravity, allowing him to fly. When in flight, he's fully suspended by this energy, almost completely repelling earth's gravimetric influence over him. He becomes his own center of gravity, and no longer has to physically leverage against the gravity of whatever planetary body he's on, or any object. By telekinetically controlling his motion, Sodam Yat is capable of Mach speeds and near light speed in atmosphere. He can fly to the moon in seconds, but faster than that outside of atmospheric interference. His control of his flight is perfect and he can perform aerobatic feats such as hovering, flying backwards and even lifting great weights while flying. ::Total Recall: Both Sodam Yat's Daxamite physiology and the fact that his engrams are stabilized by a solar-frequency hologram reinforcing his neural matrix allow him near-perfect recall of events he pays specific attention to or that have emotional significance or are particularly striking. ::Voice Throwing: He can modulate his voice to transmit on radio or microwave/radar frequencies, and can expel a minute amount of air in space at a warm enough temperature and speed to carry sub-vocalized sound directly to one or more targets. ::Super Enhanced Senses: The enhanced structure of Sodam Yat's sensory organs combined with the increased capacity of his nervous system provides for the greatly enhanced senses. His range of hearing extends from the subsonic through to the point where signal modulation in broadcast communications can be sensed and demodulated into "sounds". His visual reception range covers the entirety of the electromagnetic spectrum. ::The difference between human and Sodam Yat's vision is that Sodam Yat has the capability to see a much wider band of the electromagnetic spectrum; while humans only sense a very narrow band of the spectrum we call visible light. Sodam Yat can change the spectrum he perceives at any given time, by changing the chemical receptors in the rods and cones of his retinas. He can adjust his photovoltaic detection as an act of will to sense longer wavelengths down to the infrared, and higher energy light, up to X-ray and gamma radiation. :::*'Superhuman Hearing': The ability to hear any sound at any volume or pitch. The only Earth creature who can detect sounds at the frequency he can is a Blue Whale (0.01-200,000 Hz). :::*''Telescopic Vision: The ability to "zoom in" his distance to see something at a great distance. :::*Microscopic Vision: Sodam Yat can use the gravitational fields generated by the muscles in his eyes to produce a gravity lens, allowing him to focus far beyond the range of the human eye. Combined with Sodam Yat's sensitivity to light, he can magnify an image a virtually countless number of times. :::*X-Ray Vision: Sodam Yat can see through solids objects by using a combination of these telescopic and microscopic visual abilities to see through the atomic structure of an object and focus past it, as a camera focuses beyond the dust on a lens. Certain dense materials, notably lead, obstruct this ability. :::*Heat Vision: Sodam Yat has the ability to expel stored (solar/electromagnetic) internal energy in the form of focused beams of radiation from his eyes. He emits light along various frequencies in high energy bursts that flash-melts materials instantly, weaken structural integrity over a smaller area, such as melting the barrel of a gun but leaving the handle untouched. Sodam Yat can control his heat vision and direct it wherever he wants to. He directs it with his eyes. ::::In actuality, Sodam Yat could not emit the directly from his eyes. The energy is actually built up on the surface of the bio-energetic field surrounding his body and emitted from there. This allows his body to be protected from the energy and absorbing stray electromagnetic energy back into his body. Sodam Yat's energy reclamation aura is so efficient that any radiation, even those emitted from him, once in the environment are able to be reabsorbed. ::::The heat beams are psionically controlled and that control is reflexive, so he can shut it off without accidentally damaging anything that he does not want to. He can emit the radiation visibly or invisibly at lower settings. His energy has a high visibility profile if emitted at higher levels. :::*Electro-magnetic Spectrum Vision: can see well into most of the EM Spectrum. He can see and identify radio/television and any and all broadcast/transmitted frequencies, allowing him to avoid detection through radar or satellite monitoring methods. '''Ion Empowerment': he is able to access, generate and manipulate the green willpower energy of the symbiotic Ion Entity. He thus has the ability to manipulate willpower from the the Ion entity. This redefines the limits of what he can do with his powers. It is true that his abilities are much like a normal Green Lantern, but with the increase in power from the Ion entity, the range of things he can affect is much larger. *'Willpower Induction': Infinite or Omnipotent Willpower-casting powers and abilities. *'Willpower-Induced Energy Manipulation': As the embodiment of willpower (Ion Power), he can access, control, manipulate and generate the infinite green willpower energy, derived through the Ion entity. All powers similar to a Green Lantern Corps Power Ring and the Starheart. *''Reality Altering: Nigh-Omnipotent ability to manipulate reality. *Chronokinesis: Nigh-Omnipotent ability to manipulate time. *'Flight/'''Levitation. The ability to move freely via ones mind or will through atmospheres or space. *''Energy Manipulation: Nigh-Omnipotent ability to manipulate energy. *Matter Manipulation: Nigh-Omnipotent ability to manipulate matter. *Psionics: High level psychic abilities. *'Create Solid Light-Energy Constructs.' *'Immortality: Due to his link with Ion (Ion is immortal), Sodam Yat is immortal as well. *'''Protective Aura/Sheath: He has a relatively permanent personal force-field that protects him from bullets and the like (described as “invulnerability”). This life sustaining aura protects him from harm. He can generate a field of life sustaining atmosphere and protection from harmful radiation, even if he is unconscious. *Universal Awareness. *''Since the power is based on the beings imagination, the powers and abilities is virtually limitless.'' Abilities *Coming Soon Strength *Sodam Yat is as strong as Superman, if not stronger (arguably). Weaknesses Solar Energy: Sodam Yat requires solar energy to function at peak capacity, or his powers fade to greatly reduced levels, some disappearing entirely if his solar reserves are empty. Sodam Yat cannot absorb energy from the lower frequency orange O-class stars and cannot process the higher-frequency White K or Blue F classes. Blue B and Yellow G type stars are ideal. Sodam Yat can easily survive conditions in deep space, but he does need to breathe, eat, sleep, and excrete. Sodam Yat can hold his breath for a maximum of 12 hours, and requires 2 hours of sleep a night to function at peak mental efficiency, as well needing to dream at least half an hour a night, or experience the psychological effects of sleep deprivation as would any other person who missed a night of sleep. When his solar energy is depleted, his resistance to physical punishment drops to approximately one-quarter the normal amount. Withstanding large amounts of damage continuously over time will rapidly deplete his solar reserves. Further, the radiation signature of the red sun of the Daxam system (and similar M-class stars) instantly causes the ribosomal structures to lose their stored energy, reducing a Daxamite to normal humanoid levels. Lead: The fatal flaw in Daxamite cellular physiology is the unique radiation given off by Lead. In the most minute amounts, the radiation waveforms and high-energy particles emitted by Lead can react catastrophically with the very ribosomal chemical that grant a Daxamite powers. The briefest contact can strip these powers, and further begin a fatal poisoning that totally shuts down cellular activity in the affected areas. As Lead radiation makes its way through the bloodstream, a Daxamite becomes instantly weak and ill in its unshielded presence, and prolonged exposure will render him or her unconscious (after 30 minutes to an hour depending on the size of the sample, and the current state of his solar reserves, and will eventually (after two to four hours reach all parts of his body and bring death, usually as the body's immune system attempts to expel the deadly toxin. Any exposure to lead causes pain and weakness permanently, even after he is taken to safety. Lead emissions can be blocked by other super-dense materials. Magic: Sodam Yat is also vulnerable to magical and psionic effects. Although he is no more detrimentally affected by such effects than a normal human would be, this is a significantly exploitable weakness in comparison to his incredible physical resilience. Vision Limitation: x-ray vision cannot penetrate lead or lead-lined walls. The heat of his x-ray vision cannot melt lead, unless it is a very thin lining. Equipment *Green Lantern Power Battery Transportation *Coming Soon Weapons *Green Lantern Ring Notes *In Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #2, it was revealed that Sodam Yat has becomes the last Guardian of the Universe in the 31st Century, although it could be argued that this is only a Possible Future. *With Sodam Yat's 31st Century Version of The Green Lantern Corps Oath the last 2 lines of this oath seem to be simmalar to that of the Sinestro Corps Oath. Trivia *Alan Moore planned to use the character in his proposed story, Twilight of the Superheroes, which went unpublished. In the proposal that was leaked onto the Internet, the Daxamite Green Lantern is named Sodam Yat and is also referred to as The Ultimate Green Lantern. In that story, Sodam Yat is the last Green Lantern to confront a rogue Superman, who has just killed many Green Lanterns, Thanagarians and the Martian Manhunter, before finally defeating him. The character would subsequently go unused until 2006. See Also *Sodam Yat/Gallery In Other Media *Coming Soon Links *http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Sodam_Yat_%28New_Earth%29 *http://www.comicvine.com/ion/29-46185/ Category:Guardians of the Universe Category:Green Lantern Corps Members